go off

Islamic State militants retreating from Palmyra laid thousands of mines that they planned to set off simultaneously as the army moved in, a Syrian officer told Reuters in the ancient city after its recapture from the jihadist fighters.

It’s a familiar pattern to any Beijing resident who lived through the Summer 2008 Olympics and a summit of world leaders last year: Anxious for big-ticket events to go off without a hitch, China halts factories, orders cars off the roads and closes offices and schools.

Seventy-nine-year-old former Vietnamese commando Lam Son Nao still feels uncomfortable whenever he thinks about the moment he tried to recover 84 kilos of explosives that had been left near the USNS Core aircraft carrier.

A military parade will take place in Ho Chi Minh City on April 30 to mark the 40th anniversary of Reunification Day, according to the national committee on the organization of major anniversaries in 2014-2015.

The Long Tong (going to the field) festival opened in Dinh Hoa district of northern Thai Nguyen province on February 28, or the tenth day of the first lunar month, drawing crowds of local ethnic people and visitors from other localities.